Website Committee Report

By John Sarwark, MD and Michael Roh, MD
Website Committee Co-Chairs

SRS Announces New Facebook Page. SRS is joining the social media world; Patient Education Committee member Ahmad Nassr, MD has created an SRS Facebook page. Please sign up and be a fan of the SRS page!

The appearance of the SRS website is currently undergoing significant renovation with improved access to the wealth of information on the site and increased user-friendliness with graphics and multimedia for patients and families who are directed to the site.

The website itself has been reviewed and updated. Numerous subsections of the website have been revised. Several members of the Website Committee were especially helpful. Michael Flippin, MD and Adrian Gardner, FRCS reviewed the Physicians and Healthcare Professionals section; Mark Lee, MD reviewed the Meetings and Research sections; Michael Roh, MD and Matthew Geck, MD initiated and reviewed the Wikipedia page; Anthony Rinella, MD reviewed and redesigned the Global Outreach section, which will go live shortly.

At the request of the SRS Presidential Line, a survey initiative was started to obtain feedback from trusted patients and families. To this end, a printed questionnaire and a Survey Monkey Link were prepared to record impressions of both the SRS website, as well as other scoliosis-related websites.

Communication with Paul Sponseller, MD was initiated regarding a video that will highlight the benefits and success stories of non-operative treatment of spinal deformity. Kristin Venuti is a nurse practitioner at Johns Hopkins who works in pediatric orthopedics, and she is coordinating this effort. Her first patient interview was scheduled for January 24, 2011.

A subcommittee has been formed to spearhead the renovation of the Patients and Family section of the website, comprised of Anthony Rinella, MD (Co-Chair), Michael Roh, MD (Co-Chair), Jay Shapiro, MD and Kit Song, MD. This section is a priority for our target audience—patients and families. The renovation will include a reorganization of the existing information, as well as construction of animated material which will direct site visitors to this user-friendly section of the site.

Approval was given to contract for services with Patrick Carrico, a web designer with extensive experience in the construction of medical and spine-related websites. We anticipate that we will continue to move seamlessly in bringing the website homepage improvements on-line, as well as continue with the Patients and Family renovation.